ZACHARY LEVINE, Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle |
September 29, 2010

CINCINNATI — Given the number of stamps in his baseball passport, please excuse Nelson Figueroa’s desire to make a statement in the season finale.

For the second year in a row, Figueroa gave his employer something to remember, this time with 6 2⁄3 scoreless innings against a makeshift lineup as the Astros defeated the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 at Great American Ball Park.

“I want to go out with a bang,” Figueroa said. “I want to leave a good taste in everyone’s mouth as we head out to the offseason. They’ve got decisions to make, and I feel like I was a good part of this team and I can help this team win and I can help this team in a lot of ways.”

Figueroa was barely threatened by a Reds team giving many of its starters a full-day or nearly full-day rest after clinching the National League Central title on Tuesday.

He surrendered six hits, walked three and struck out five in a performance reminiscent of his four-hitter on the final day of the 2009 season for the Mets against the Astros.

He improved to 6-4 with a 3.52 ERA for the season, including a 4-3 record and a 3.54 ERA with the Astros since being acquired off waivers from Philadelphia.

Been around

Such a nomadic existence has been the story of Figueroa’s career.

He played for four different major league teams from 2000-2004, then spent four years in the minor leagues, Mexico and Asia before playing for three different teams from 2008-2010.

And with youth the way of the Astros now, the 36-year-old is hardly clear of making that four teams in four years in his return to the majors.

But the Astros certainly benefited from his services in 2010, as he brought some stability to a No. 5 spot that Felipe Paulino, Brian Moehler and Wesley Wright failed to hold down because of injury, ineffectiveness or both. The Astros went 6-3 in his nine starts.

“I feel like I can be a nice part of this team in the years to come, and that’s up to them,” Figueroa said. “I’d love to return.”

After watching Figueroa for the 17th time overall including some short relief and some long relief, manager Brad Mills recalled why he decided to give him a start in the first place.

“That veteran ability to know how to pitch was big, and that was probably the determining factor of putting him in the rotation,” Mills said. “He’s done absolutely outstanding.”

Figueroa worked out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the fourth, getting Paul Janish to pop out to catcher Jason Castro and Corky Miller to lift a fly ball into the glove of Jason Bourgeois in center.

A little help

Wilton Lopez got Figueroa out of the seventh, striking out Tuesday’s hero Jay Bruce, who represented the tying run. For Lopez, it marked the 32nd runner he’s inherited and the 31st he’s left stranded — good for the best rate in the major leagues.

Fernando Abad worked a scoreless eighth inning, and Brandon Lyon the save by retiring potential tying run Joey Votto on a groundout.

Figueroa did the remainder with his second longest outing of the season. If it was his last as an Astro or if it was just the latest of many, the well-traveled righthander from Brooklyn has enjoyed his time.

“It’s just been a lot of fun to be around these guys and see us grow as a team and really do some good things in the second half,” he said.